Mother’s Day is busy time for local restaurants

The Coachmen’s Lodge Restaurant, in Bellingham, prepares a special Mother’s Day menu that ranges from Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus and Pork Osso Bucco to Grilled Atlantic Swordfish and Salmon on a Cedar Plank. Photo/Joseph B. Nadeau

Michelle Decelles always knew Mother’s Day to be a big day at the Coachmen’s Lodge Restaurant she and her husband, Norman, run at 273 Wrentham Road in Bellingham.
It was a big day for the restaurant but Decelles never fully understood why people wanted to take their Mom’s out on that day until she became a Mom six years ago.
“I don’t think I realized what motherhood really was until I became a mother myself,” she said while working at the restaurant this week.
Decelles had her son, Norman, 6, later in life and with some extra effort, and now knows motherhood to be an exceptionally rewarding part of life.
“Having a child puts it in a whole different perspective,” she said while calling Norman’s arrival in her life “a miracle to me.”
As she took reservations for Mother’s Day on Sunday — one of the busiest holidays of the year at the Coachmen’s — Decelles could not forget her role in Norman’s life and spent a few minutes talking to him on the phone about a special event at Mercy Mount Country Day School scheduled for the following day. It was a “Tea and Danish” function for the kids and their Moms and Decelles said she wouldn’t think of missing it.
As she has for the past 30 years, Decelles will be spending Mother Day’s at the restaurant working with her husband helping other area families to enjoy their mom’s special day.
“It’s always very busy — non-stop — because moms are special,” she said. “They give of themselves all day and it is a day to remember Mom and give her day off,” Decelles said.
The Coachmen’s Lodge prepares a special Mother’s Day menu selected by its Executive Chef Gianfranco Campanella that ranges from Prime Rib of Beef Au Jus and Pork Osso Bucco to Grilled Atlantic Swordfish and Salmon on a Cedar Plank. There is also the locally popular Chicken Family-Style Dinner and an assortment of five appetizers including Oyster Rockefeller and Scampi Amalfi.
The restaurant opens for its reservation-only seating at noon and seats its last tables at 5 p.m. “It is all by reservation and we know who is coming,” Decelles said.
The restaurant will fill its three function rooms and three dining rooms during day and expects to serve up 900 people, she said.
As for her own special day Decelles said that will be Monday when her husband and son plan to take her out for dinner. “My husband is taking me out Monday night with my son but he hasn’t told me where yet,” she said.
Across the state line in Woonsocket, Micheline Savini was also looking ahead to a busy Mother’s Day at her family’s restaurant, Savini’s at 476 Rathbun St.
Savini and her husband, Roger, also take reservations for their seating’s between Noon and 6 p.m. but added that if “you come to my restaurant and I have room for you, I will feed you. We don’t turn anyone away unless we are full to capacity,” she said.
Savini’s also offers a special menu on Mother Day’s and its all-you-can-eat chicken dinner for $10.95 is very popular with customers that day. People generally like to come in on Mother’s Day and have their meal in a timely manner so they can go off to enjoy the rest of the day, Savini said.
Having spent Mother’s Day at her restaurant for the past 33 years, Savini now sees her two daughters, Jill Savini-Moylan and Gina Savini, running their own restaurant, Ciro’s Tavern on Cherry at 42 Cherry St., for a Mother’s Day brunch from 10 to 3 p.m.
“I am working Mother’s Day but Mother’s Day is everyday to me so I don’t get excited about it,” she said.
Mother’s Day is also an extra busy day at the Galito Restaurant at 214 Columbus Ave., in Pawtucket where Telmon DaSilva is co-owner.
Galito offers traditional Portuguese dishes and American cuisine such as Ensopado de Marisco, shrimp, littlenecks, mussels, scallops, crab and lobster and Bife a Chefe, a 12-oz Angus Steak cooked in a special sauce. The restaurant will open on Mother’s Day at 11 a.m. and close at 10 p.m.
“It is the busiest day of the year for just about everybody,” DaSilva said while noting his restaurant is also expecting a full list of reservations. “Reserve ahead, it is always your best bet,” he said. Galito reserves tables as large as 20 and as small as serving two diners, he said.
Although working, DaSilva said he plans to have his wife, Maria, and their children come to have dinner at the restaurant during the day. It is what you have to do on a special holiday in the business. “We are pretty much sold out every year,” he said.
Spumoni’s Restaurant at 1537 Newport Ave., Pawtucket, plans to serve its full menu of Italian cuisine and seafood Mother’s Day but Colin Heroux, a host for the restaurant, recommends parties of five or more make a reservation 24 hours in advance. Parties of less than five can use the restaurant’s call-ahead system to put their names in the system before they arrive to speed the seating process. “It doesn’t guarantee a reservation but it does reduce your wait time,” Heroux said. In addition to the full menu offerings for Mother’s Day, Spumoni’s will also be giving a free mini dessert to all moms on Mother’s Day, Heroux said.
Although taking mom out on Mother’s Day can mean a full dinner in a restaurant, Greggs Restaurant at 1303 North Main St. at the Providence-Pawtucket line, is also offering breakfast this year before the lunch and dinner menu begins at noon, according to Andrew Downing, a Gregg’s dining room supervisor.
“We are actually completely full for breakfast and are taking reservations for lunch and dinner starting at noon,” he said. The restaurant, one of four in the Greggs chain, just started offering breakfast along with the Greggs in North Kingstown. The East Providence and Warwick Greggs will be adding breakfast in near future, he said.
Downing expects the restaurant to be busy all day Mother’s Day until closing time at 11 p.m. “Mother’s Day is pretty jamming all day,” he said. “It is one of our busiest days of the year,” Downing said.
And for those looking for a simple meal out with mom on Mother’s Day, even breakfast, there is Katrina’s Country Kitchen and Pub at 502 Roosevelt Ave, Central Falls.
Tony Leiter, 63, runs the business with his wife, Diana, and offers a full breakfast menu beginning at 6 a.m.
Leiter said he believes you have to keep your business hours even on holidays like Mother’s Day when people traditionally go out to eat at larger places like Gregg’s.
“You’ve got to make a living and we are here in a depressed city, Central Falls,” he said. “Central Falls is just coming back from bad times,” Leiter said of the difficulties businesses in the community have been facing.
“If you close, and people come by and it’s closed, they are going to find another place to go to,” he said.
Katrina’s Country Kitchen & Pub is named for Diana’s daughter, Katrina Malouin, who died in an accident at the age of 7. Leiter said the name helps Diana keep the memory of her daughter with her all the time.
The restaurant also offers its lunch and pub menu on Sunday’s and makes it a family atmosphere with karaoke for the kids beginning at 2 p.m., Leiter said. Diana has a daughter, Tabatha, 13, and the couple a daughter together, Ashley-Nicole, as wells as Leiter’s two grown children, Melissa and Tony III.
With his own mom passing 14 years ago, Leiter said Mother’s Day is now a day for his wife to enjoy.
“To anybody who comes in, it’s Happy Mother’s Day,” Leiter said.